Sandy forces anti-politics politics

For all the talk of how the presidential campaigns would be frozen by Hurricane Sandy, the reality is this: They’ve simply shifted gears.

As wind and driving rain began to whip the East Coast in earnest Monday, President Barack Obama hunkered down in Washington to attend briefings — but dispatched Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton to continue campaigning without him.

Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign canceled some events Monday and Tuesday “out of sensitivity for the millions of Americans in the path of Hurricane Sandy,” a campaign advisory said. But Romney is headed to Dayton, Ohio, where at he plans to devote an event to hurricane relief. Paul Ryan will collect donations at a campaign center in La Crosse, Wis.

Romney, in particular, finds himself in a box: He can’t campaign or raise money in states affected by the storm while the president’s every move, from calling governors to visiting Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters to convening meetings in the Situation Room, wraps the trappings of the Oval Office around his campaign.

But Romney has one big advantage: He is free of the risk the president bears in failing, or even appearing to fail, to pull the levers of government to effectively respond to the expected devastation. And he has little choice but to limit his campaigning.

“It’s a very difficult situation for the challenger to strike the right note to not look too political but to also [be] empathetic with the victims,” said Mary Kate Cary, who was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush. “I don’t think there are any points to be scored right now.”

Romney canceled a slate of campaign events late Monday. A campaign aide said there was fear that the media would look for ways to criticize the campaign if it had gone on with a full schedule.

Earlier in the day in Iowa, Romney said he had been briefed by officials at the National Weather Service and FEMA and asked supporters to join him in praying for folks on the East Coast.

The other complication for both sides is the unique nature of the storm. Sure, there have been crises in the midst of presidential elections before, but a hurricane — and the flooding — is so uncontrollable and so unpredictable that it puts political strategists into unfamiliar territory.